As temperatures soar, outages hit Punjab, power consumption up 43%

Until June 15 this year, the state has witnessed a 43 per cent increase in power consumption and 39 per cent increase in maximum demand compared to the corresponding period last year. While the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has met a demand of 15,775 MW (megawatt) in June 2024, the maximum demand was 11,309 MW last year. Similarly, the power consumption till June 15 last year was 2,682 MU (million unit) while this year for the corresponding period, the consumption has been 3,823 MU.

For the current situation, experts blame the government move to advance the sowing of paddy in some districts compared to last year, higher temperatures and 300 units of free power being given to the residents of the state by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government. They maintain that last year, the paddy sowing was staggered in different phases from June 11 to June 25 but this year, the entire operations have been started on June 11 in six districts and from June 15 in all the remaining districts.

Also, the mercury has crossed 45-degrees mark in several districts like Pathankot, Bathinda and other parts of the state. This has led to more consumption of power. Lowering of water table is also being blamed for the problem as the farmers are drawing water from deeper tubewells by using higher horsepower pumpsets. The freebie of 300 units per month to every household has also increased the consumption as the residents, who were earlier careful about using electricity, have now switched over to coolers and air conditioners to ensure that they make use of free 300 units.

With the increase in consumption, the residents are complaining of power outages even as the PSPCL has been denying any scheduled power cuts. For instance, residents of Mohali complain that they are facing outages for two-three hours every day. “Not a day passes when we do not face power cuts. Nobody responds on the helpline numbers. The situation is bad,” said Rattan Lal, a resident of Sector 68, Mohali.

According to PSPCL, there are no scheduled power cuts in Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Amritsar areas. They claim that they are not switching off power for maintenance purposes these days.

However, the ground reality is that people in both urban and rural areas are experiencing up to two-three power cuts daily, each ranging from half an hour to two-three hours.

According to the chief engineer of PSPCL (Jalandhar Circle), R L Sarangal, there are no scheduled power cuts in any of the areas under the Jalandhar Circle. He mentioned that if there were any power cuts in these areas, they will look into the matter.

Ludhiana, too, has been witnessing constant power outages, mostly extending from two-four hours a day in several areas. Residents in upscale areas such as Civil Lines, Ghumar Mandi, PAU, Maharaj Nagar, and Aggar Nagar have been complaining of regular power outages. Three days ago on June 14, there was no power supply in Civil Lines for nearly 30 hours in scorching heat. The PSPCL officials had said that it happened due to a fault in 66 Kv and the repair took time. Two days ago, in Aggar Nagar, there was no power for almost six hours after there was a blast in a supply box. Several other areas, including Near Sangla Shivala Mandir, Dugri, Chaura bazaar, PAU hostels, Jassian have been witnessing regular power outages.

However, Ludhiana chief engineer Inderpal Singh said that there were no scheduled power cuts. “Whatever power outages are happening, they are due to infrastructure breakdowns due to severe temperatures and overloading. Cables are getting damaged, fuses are going off and transformers are facing issues, but we are repairing them in real-time for convenience of the people,” he said.

CMD (PSPCL) Baldev Singh Sran said that they were managing the power situation well. “We have managed the 43 per cent increase in power consumption and are supplying uninterrupted power despite the unprecedented high temperatures. When did we hear of 47 degrees Celsius in Punjab earlier? However, there is an issue of overloading in several areas where the residents have not declared enough load. You can well imagine that out of 78 lakh of domestic consumers, 16 lakh have declared their load to be of less than 0.5 KW. When the system is overwhelmed, the transformers that are not equipped to handle heavier loads, give away. The breakdowns are being referred to as cuts while there are no cuts,” he said, adding that for a scheduled power cut, the grid is shut. “When have you seen a report about a grid that has been shut?”

He said the situation will get better from June 22 onwards as the weathermen have forecast rain.

However, the All India Power Engineers Federation has warned of an impending crisis and has asked Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to take immediate measures like reviewing free power, changing office timings, closing time of commercial establishments and delay sowing of paddy, failing which grid disturbance could take place, plunging the state into darkness.

In a letter to the CM, Shailendra Dubey, chairman of AIPEF, has stated that the free power as state policy should be reviewed, the office timings should be changed to 7 am-2 pm, all the commercial establishments, malls and shops should be closed at 7 pm.

Also, peak load restrictions should be imposed on industry and paddy sowing in the remaining areas of Punjab should be shifted to June 25, and no one should be allowed to violate the date. The water-guzzling varieties like PUSA 44 should be banned and varieties like PR126, Basmati, which mature in 90 days, should be planted. He has also sought that power theft should be covered as an offence under NSA.

Dubey stated, “While situation of power availability and supply is becoming serious day by day, neither the Government of India nor any state government has initiated steps to control the power demand. If the situation continues alike, there are fair chances of grid disturbance. In the state of Punjab, the power consumption has gone up by 43% between June 1 and 15, 2024, when compared to the same period during 2023 while the maximum demand has gone up from 11,309 MW in June 2023 to 15,775 MW in June 2024. With additional agricultural load expected to rise by the end of June due to paddy cultivation in the whole state of Punjab, it may lead to an unmanageable power situation.”

The letter has further stated, “The AlPEF considers you (CM) as the most efficient and pro-public Chief Minister in India and thus requests you to lead the initiatives to control the power consumption enlisted in our letter. In our opinion, the situation is going to be serious if these steps reiterated are not implemented immediately.”

He has also stated that Union Minister of Power may be approached to allocate at least 1,000MW additional power from central pool on top priority.

Punjab was the first state in India last year for having changed the office timings from 9 am-5 pm to 7 am- 2 pm. The state also provides free 300 units of power, which is considered responsible for not only being a drain on pubic exchequer but also for having increased the power demand.

(WITH INPUTS FROM ANJU AGNIHOTRI CHABA and DIVYA GOYAL GOPAL)